Ticker tape rain on this parade

Under the bright morning light of a sweltering summer sun, the U.S. women’s national soccer team ventured onto the stretch of Broadway known as the Canyon of Heroes for a storied city tradition — the ticker tape parade.

Fans young and old cheered and shouted as the team slowly rolled by on a fleet of floats. Waves of shredded paper floated down from buildings overlooking the route.

It was a day for women and gender parity as the team has called on the U.S. Soccer Federation to pay its male and female athletes equally. Before the parade kicked off, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law he and supporters say will help better guarantee equal pay for men and women in the state.

At the heart of it all was a team that has dominated the sport on a global stage. Following their win over Japan in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015, the soccer team muscled their way this year to a 2-0 win in the final match against the Netherlands, making it the fourth World Cup America’s women have won — the most of any country since the tournament’s inception in 1991.

— Julius Constantine Motal